Typically, a user's interaction with a computer system, or an operating system based on windows or a graphical user interface has generally required a direct physical contact (e.g., via cables, some other physical mechanism, mechanical, electrical, etc.) interaction between the user and the system or interface device in order to control or perform any action or specific function or action. Available technology offers a wide range of input devices and interfaces that connect machines with the user, either through cables or wireless interfaces. However all of these marketed technologies generally require the user to touch or to come into contact with some sort of specific control device (e.g., keyboard, mouse, touch screen, remote control, etc.) to perform an action.
Essentially all of these user interfaces (e.g., remote control, keyboard, mouse, trackball, digitizer, control levers, buttons, switches, touch-sensitive screens, etc.) have usually had the same working principle; they require physical contact between the interface and the user. In some systems, e.g., popular remote controls, a portion of the systems are simply communication interfaces between the user held device and the controlled systems (e.g., computer, video game terminal, etc.). Often these control interfaces employ wireless technologies, such as, infrared (IR) or radio frequency (RF), to communicate between the user held device (e.g., mouse, remote control, Wii™-style wand, etc.). In this context a Wii™-style wand refers to a handheld controller for a Wii™ video game system sold by Nintendo™. Specifically, the Wii™ wand determines gross motor movements based upon internal accelerometers and received infrared signals (which are transmitted from a separate sensor bar). This collected data is then transmitted to the video game processor via a RF link.